cards, I got a huge kick out of that one, too. 
Ending an email with Thanks? Yeah, I can deal with that. What really chaps my hide is when someone sends me an email asking me to do something, then ends it with “Please advise.” Okay, my advise is that you ask someone else to do this. It’s gotten to the point that when someone end an email with “Please advise” even they’re actually asking for advise, I get pissy just as a reflex. I’m not sure how much more pressure the vein in my forhead can take!
Please advise.
Cut down on the caffeine.
Thanks!
You must work for the same company I work for.
When will this be? I look forward to reading it.
What is a “ghosted” smilie (smiley)? Google returned nothing when I tried to look this up. 
Sadly, this is how I am decaffeinated. Now you can see why I’ve cut out caffeine from my diet! Maybe I’ll start opening my email program only after having a good stiff drink.
pizzabrat, from now on, whenever you get an email ending in an inappropriate “Thanks”, just reply with “You’re welcome.”
Couldn’t hurt, might help.
Sorry; I meant pizzabrat.
Thanks.
Aaaah, Corporate America. Fuck us all.
I, too, hate the Thanks! My visceral reactions to it have nothing to do with anyone other than the loathesome bitch I replaced, who, even though we were lateral in title, she was considered my superior. My supervisor, no less. I would have understood this for training purposes, but by the time I could do her job blindfolded and began to take on projects she couldn’t FATHOM doing, you’d have thought that would end. It didn’t. She was a backstabbing twat. Every email she ever sent to me ended with “Thanks,”. It didn’t actually MEAN “thank you.” It meant, “Fuck off.” Now I hate it. Even if it really does mean, “Thank you.” I swear, the way I react to it looks just like Alice in the Dilbert strip when she gets frustrated. x<
In a corporate setting, if you mean, “Thank you” then say just that. Regards is cool, too. Thanks could also be construed as too informal.
Then again, I may not know what the fuck I’m talking about. I tend to do everything in my power to soften corporate communication while still remaining professional, and my asshole wonderful, shining examples of management bosses get on my case because I’m too curt. I can’t win.
What, they get their feelings hurt if you don’t sign off your emails with “Thanks?”
Send them a flowery Blue Mountain card to make them feel better.
While I have nothing against the poster PunditLisa, if I received a message with ‘thx’ in it, I’d wonder how the writer managed to confuse email correspondence with SMS. I *hate * ‘thx’, ‘u’ and that kind of stuff - especially in email, where there is just no excuse for not finding the time to put in the missing couple of letters.
It makes it look like the writer either
a) couldn’t be bothered making that small extra effort because the person they’re emailing is utterly trivial to them, or
b) doesn’t know how to spell the word and is trying to avoid it.
Admittedly, the latter mainly relates to people using ‘ur’ or ‘ure’ instead of ‘your/you’re’, but I’d still raise an eyebrow wondering what inspired ‘thx’ as substitution for such a simple word as ‘thanks’.
Of course, I sign all my casual work-related email (as opposed to the official stuff) with:
So no doubt I’m irritating the hell out of someone else. (There’s probably someone saying to themselves when they read it, “Cheers? Cheers? Where’s the cheer in this hellhole of an office? Or does the writer think we’re in a pub downing beers? I bet that’s it - she’s off swilling alcohol… no wonder she’s cheery! And what’s with ‘-d’? Doesn’t want to type out her whole name? Don’t I deserve her whole name? I HATE THIS WOMAN!” )
So, y’know, you can’t win no matter what approach you take.
This never bothered me until I started working with my current office manager. She ends EVERY email, no matter how short, with that. Here’s a typical example:
Asimovian,
Attorney X is having a problem with printing. Can you check it out? Thanks.
Shelly
Attorney X already emailed me about the same issue. I’m working on it.
-Asimovian
Asimovian,
Can you let me know the outcome? Thanks.
Shelly
Not a problem.
Asimovian,
OK. Thanks.
Shelly
:smack:
Like ybeaf(?), I worl for a large support organization and the least I can give pissed off bookstore management is a little courtesy.
I sign every E-mail with:
Regards,
Sam Xxxx
Company
Position
Phone
Fax
My E-mail address isn’t in there for obvious reasons…
I sign off on every SDMB posting with:
Sam
Winner – Most Original Coding This Year.
Thanks!
Heh. A recent hire went ahead and included hers in the signature. Just dumb. I felt too sad for her to point it out.
We actually have a company standard template for signatures. Guess what’s included?
I don’t think it’s dumb at all. For one, many email systems take the actual email in the From line and convert it to a display name, which if the recipient then wants to know what it really is, he has to right-click and go to Properties to find out.
If the email is forwarded or received in Plain Text, the “real” email address (from the forwarded email) is not even accessible anymore - only the Display Name can be seen. Plus, if someone wants to copy your entire sig line to add to their Contacts, they can copy your info in one step. They don’t have to copy the name/phone/co. lines, paste, and then go up to the From line and right-click, Properties, etc., copy, go back to the Contact entry again, paste.
I have to laugh at this. See, most of the other women I work with who aren’t engineers do crap like that. They tend to dig glurge, too, so I guess I’m screwed, because my efforts to get everybody to like me just will NOT go that far.
Besides that, to answer your question, about their feelings, it does seem that way. I have no clue what I could do to walk the line between being professional and being bubbly, likeable and fun. I think there’s nothing wrong with me until someone calls me into their office to tell me that I’m not enough of one or the other, and I need to work on myself. WTF?! I may never figure it out.
I’m somewhat anal retentive about all my emails looking exactly the same, so all my business emails look exactly like this:
I usually write them pretty formally too. Sometimes if I’m feeling particularly wild I’ll replace “Regards,” with “Thanks,” or “Thanks!”. But mostly not.
I work with a nearly all-male litigation department in a decent-sized law firm, and no one signs or has an intro on the email. A simple “please see me when you get in” and “do you have this file in your office?” are the norm. Maybe it really is a guy thing.
I agree. The one exception to the no-signing thing was some dude who signed all his emails, “thx, steve.” Every email from him was like the shitty Family Circus entry on the comic page, just waiting to suck. You’d get to the end and want to look away, but you couldn’t. You were compelled to recognize and read his crappy little “thx, steve” just so you could mentally writhe in distaste. The secretaries would amuse themselves by trying to pronounce ‘thx’ and using it all day long. He lasted less than a year, poor soul.
If we get nothing else out of this thread, please, please try to convince your husband to use his subject lines. That is how other, organized people file emails. A succinct, descriptive subject line is worth its weight in gold in an office.
Put me in the camp of people who hate being thanked for statements, not requests. “Here is that information you requested. Thanks.” Thanks for what - the request? The work that YOU did? For not coming down the hallway and bludgeoning you senseless with your computer? Agh. And I don’t think much of “thx,” either.
I (would) like to end emails with “Yours as ever, featherlou.” Leave 'em wondering, I say.